Edible Desktop Printer Inks ?

Edible inks ? I will not argue with this. It will not gain the edible prefix if not generally recognized as safe. Perhaps made with commonly know natural and synthetic food dyes. Unlike normal inks which are usually harmful. However, the term edible comes with a limited life span. It needs preservative of sort to extend. Then it is less safe depending on what kind of extra chemical added.

Let us forget what I said earlier and assume the edible ink is completely safe.

We transferred the bottle contents to printer ink tank.

What will happen next? With the aid of desktop computer or a laptop, the printer mechanism will draw out the ink and sprays it through minute nozzles to frosting paper and produces the desired image. The design will then be applied to a cake. A birthday cake with picture of celebrant. Wedding cake with image of groom and bride perfectly imprinted. Lovely indeed.

This cycle will repeat until the machine is out of service.

Wait! No printer cleaning?

There is cleaning. Command the printer to clean and it will flush ink to clean clogged nozzle. Nothing less but there is more. The flushed ink will add up to ink waste collected via ink waste storage bin. Thanks to new printer development. The bin can now be removed easily for easy cleaning and waste pad replacement. The clutter made between the nozzle and waste bin is not cleanable though.

One of the 5S component is “sanitize”. How can you do with a printer with delicate electronic components and small plastic parts? The best thing we can do is brush or vacuum out the dirt. Taking off the case to thoroughly clean hard to reach areas voids machine warranty. Thinking of washing it with soap and water is absurd.

The older the printer, the dirtier it gets. Is it dangerous? Who knows?

The plastic parts make-up is also questionable. Based from my previous reading and actual experiences, these are made of recycled plastics which are forbidden in food industry.

The issue here is not the ink. It is the machine that use it to re-create images.